WastewaterSCAN, one of the United States’ largest private entities that provide real-time data on pathogens in wastewater, has stopped collecting data from 43 facilities due to “resource constraints,” according to emails the group sent to staff overseeing these sites.
The group — based at Stanford University, in partnership with Emory University — had been collecting samples from 194 sites in 41 states and the District of Columbia, a swath including 39 million people. Alexandria Boehm, one of the founders and a Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering, said the program is shifting gears to focus on other projects that would “disrupt” the wastewater monitoring industry. They will still collect and publish data from 151 sites and have no plans to further reduce that tally.
WastewaterSCAN started with eight facilities in 2020 and expanded through philanthropic funding from the Sergey Brin Family Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies. On whether a funding cut led to the pull back, Boehm said, “The funders have been extremely generous and supportive of this work in a way that I am just amazed at. I don’t really have an answer for you.”
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